Chi Cafe

The serving portions here are pretty large and the prices are so cheap! Service is kinda spotty, but nothing to fret about.
We’ve eaten here twice now and have not been disappointed. The food is good and we haven’t had to wait for a table. The only thing I don’t like is that it’s SO HARD to find parking for this shopping center.
As far as I am concerned Chi Café is my fave spot in Chinatown.

My favorite place!!! Sizzling beef tenderloin is AMAZING!!!
I love their egg rolls too… The best Chinese food in the city! Good service!
Prices are nice !

Nice little restaurant in Chinatown. They have a very lengthy menu filled with options. I tried the garlic chicken fried rice, stir fried lo mein noodles with beef, and orange chicken. All were delicious and huge portions! The crab Rangoon were a tasty appetizer. We split all of that food among 3 hungry people and it was more than enough, and cost us each $ 11. What a deal!

Been going here for years. Love the quick service. Like many other restaurants in Chinatown, their goal is to get you in, get you full, and get you out ASAP. Please do not be the people that sits down, takes a ton of picture of your food, then sit around talking for hours after you’re done eating. This is not that type of a restaurant.
Usually less than $ 10 a person including tips. Opened until 2am.
Royal pan fried rice cake, Cuttlefish ball noodle soup, and sizzling beef in sweet sake sauce are my general suggestions.
Also, its BYOB.

I have been to this location two times now. The service is ok/​good. Often times when there may be a language barrier I am not as insulted by low or limited conversations.
The honey ginger tea is extremely tasty, spicy and satisfying. There are actual slivers of ginger in the tea ($ 3) ⁵⁄₅
I tried the oxtails one visit 1: they were sweet which is an automatic fail. For $ 16 it was just not worth it, lacked flavor and didn’t taste like something Id try again.
Visit 2: beef in satay sauce hot pot. It was a 3.5÷5… not great, not bad. I had to douse it in siracha and a little soy sauce. It, just like the oxtails, lacked some flavor but it was still tasty-​ish
I probably won’t return but I certainly would if someone else was paying lol (cheap I know, but I’m tired of wasting my mula)
If you take ANYTHING from this review… BUY THE HONEY GINGER TEA

This is my new late night spot!!! They are open until 2 am on weekdays !!!
We ordered the beef tenderloin wish everyone rants about and it was legit!!! The taste was really good and it was really well cooked.
I also ordered stir fried beef chow mien. It was delicious and the portion was also good. Our third dish was a beef spicy noodle soup that was seasoned so well it was our favorite dish.
I like everything about this place. The service was great, the food came out fast and the prices were appropriate.

We had breakfast here and it was awesome. We had various noodles, rice porridge (xi-​fan), etc. The service was fast and the food tasty.
On top of everything each meal was around $ 6. How much is a croissant and hash brown at McDonald’s?

Great place to get Chinese food late at night. The food is ok. I like to come here for the chicken selections like orange chicken or General Tso’s chicken.

I’m comparing this Chinese to my casual Chinese food experience that I’ve had in Chicago Chinatown and other city Chinatowns.
Goods:
Sat quickly
Modern space
Accommodate special requests
Price
Good size portion
Decent service
Areas for improvement:
No potstickers /​dumplings that aren’t deep fried
Bland dishes — real kicker
With Chinese food I try hard to compare the food and in this case although there were some good things, I would explore other spots in Chinatown. For example, Lao Shanghai (sadly under construction right now), across the courtyard has been pretty good consistently in person, pick up and delivery. Plus, they have soup dumplings!

I love the décor here, it’s so sleek and modern! The appealing of this restaurant just sucks you right in, making you want to eat here instantly. I was craving for some authentic Chinese food and Chi Café exceed my expectation! I highly recommend the sizzling beef! This is a must when you come here.

Came here multiple times and will never get sick of this place or the Chinese food.
Lower price point and good quality Chinese food.

Four stars for the great ambiance and look of the café. The food was alright I’m not sure if I would eat there again because I didn’t really enjoy my food that much. Not that it was bad, but it wasn’t anything that great, if I do go again I will try something different. At first we got an appetizer I wanted to be adventurous so I got the beef fried intestine. I did not like it and we were able to get another appetizer. I don’t remember what it was called but it was chicken on a stick basically like a kebab. I then ordered the beef brisket curry on rice. I enjoyed it however I feel like there was a lot of fat as opposed to actual meat. But other than that I finished it, it wasn’t horrible, like I said I will have to get something else if I come next time.

3.5 stars. Came here yesterday for a late lunch and, being slightly less than sober, made the executive decision to order 5 dishes for two people. Seemed like a popular spot to check out, and while it’s open almost 24/​7, we didn’t really want to wait until midnight to make the most of Chi Café. What we got:
Garlic Honey Chicken Wings: 12 wings for $ 6.50. Wings themselves were actually on the small side, and they were very heavy-​handed with the honey. While I do like honey and garlic together, the ratio here seemed to be opposite (aka should be more garlic less honey), and I may opt for the crunchy garlic wings next time.
Deep Fried Pork Intestines: Crispy and delicious as always. Two thumbs up.
Spicy Beef Noodle Soup: Just over $ 5 for a decent sized bowl of some very flavorful and spicy (though not really that spicy) broth w/​noodles and tender beef. I’d order this again.
Fish Fillet in Sichuan Spicy Sauce: So the sauce wasn’t as heavy or as spicy as I expected it to be (I was anticipating a lot more chili oil and peppercorns). As for the composition of the dish itself, while it was cheap ($ 8.50), I do wish they cut back a little bit on the vegetables to put in more actual fish.
Sizzling Beef Tenderloin with Sweet Saki Sauce: Was between this and the black pepper
steak. The sweet saki sauce was… well…sweet, so that was my mistake. Beef and onion were cooked well though and It was served sizzling as promised. That said, the portion size is smaller than expected, there were a lot of onions and it was spread out to fill out the entire plate so in the end there actually wasn’t all that much beef in it.
Final Verdict? Extensive menu, stays open super late, has pretty cool tables (with the utensils inside so you can just pull out the drawers and get more). Can be heavy handed with the sugar (Garlic Honey wings and beef tenderloin w/​saki sauce, I’m looking at you), and some of the meat dishes could certainly use more meat (sizzling beef and Sichuan fish, again looking at you). Otherwise food is good and affordable so you won’t break your budget. I may just find myself coming back here some late late night.

I look forward to returning to Chi Café to dine-​in. The food items I ordered for pickup traveled well, and it was definitely tasty. I ordered Sweet and Sour chicken, combination fried rice, chicken lo mein, and egg rolls. The Sweet and Sour chicken was the best ive had in Chinatown so far!
I LOVE the interior of Chi Café as well! Super modern, and from the looks of the patronage, its a hip hang out spot for young adults. The only downside is the size. Its super small. Shockingly there wasnt a wait on a Sunday afternoon even though I ordered for pickup.

I came here for a quick meal. I got the beef in a small wok, and I warn you its spicy. And yes theres a ton of oil in it, but I think thats the style in which its prepared. I will say that the meal was delicious and really well made. I also got the grass jelly with small tapioca and they were accommodating when I asked for more milk to be added.
Service was quick, but they dont really do substitutions (or maybe they didnt understand when I asked for one). The place is cute and clean and has little self serve drawers in some of the tables so you can grab napkins and chopsticks as well as spoons without waiting for the waiter. Service was quick and attentive as well.
The portions are generous and I would say 2 people could eat the wok dish.

One of the few decent Chinese restaurants in Chicago. It’s clean so it’s appealing to non-​Chinese people who don’t want to eat at dingy hole in the walls, but it’s still pretty good!
My friend loves the sizzling beef here, so we always have to order that. We did the salt and pepper Japanese tofu (crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside), garlic water spinach/​ong choy, the steamed rice rolls with XO sauce (anything in XO sauce is delicious) and crab rangoons for the fun of it. I would normally never order crab rangoons, but this was full of creamy cream cheese— not a miniscule tea spoon full like some other horrible places.
Service is decent for a Chinese restaurant. I would definitely come back here to fulfill my Chinese food craving.

No, will not be back.
Maybe I just had all the wrong food here but the flavor and taste is sub par for a restaurant that is situation in the heart of chinatown.
Ordered the wonton noodle soup, the wontons were TERRIBLE, premade, the noodle had this really weird taste to it. The 2 pieces of iceberg lettuce in the soup was super unappetizing.
Pan fried noodle in soy sauce, good but small portion and FILLED with onions and scallion. I understand that it was just a bit over $ 4 but come on.
Everything here price wise is pretty cheap, you can get smoothie for $ 2.75 and milk tea for less than $ 2. Ambiance is pretty clean and nice but those stool chairs are not very comfortable because you cannot lean back. Also the biggest pet peeve I had was the drawers of chopsticks and spoon that people are raving about, my waiter pulled out my chopstick from the drawer and he held the ends where I would pick up the food with his bare hands. That is very sanitary, if it weren’t a restaurant in Chinatown I’d totally be bewildered and asked for a new pair.
This restaurant is tucked away inside an alley so you can’t see it easily if you are on the main street. Less than mediocre food, will not be back.

Late night? Wrecked from drinking all night? Come through to CHI CAFE, open til 5 or 6am. Many of times this place has made my night complete. Come in here, sit next to every drunk asian person in Chicago, order Salt & Pepper Pork, and an Almond milk tea (I don’t think it’s actually milk tea, but they give me the same thing every time and its delicious).
I’ve never been here sober, so I can’t speak to how good it is normally.

My UIC students constantly remind me of their love for Chi Café. They describe it as a cheaper, more authentic Joy Yee with a bit more emphasis on Chinese cuisine and not the whole array of Asia.
I haven’t dined in yet, but I’ve ordered from them twice. Both times, it was super hard to get them on the landline since I am sure they are constantly busy. Each time, I ordered two of my favorite Cantonese style dishes, and so far, it’s been above average, but still misses the mark on some parts. Allow me to explain:
* Salt & Pepper Squid — I love me some calamari, and Chi Café does it well. For $ 9, you get a generous amount that resembles what I expect to get from a Chinese restaurant, Well done, and definitely ask for more pepper because it’s not enough!
* Beef Brisket w/​Egg Noodle Soup — The soup was bland as hell surprisingly, but the egg noodles and beef brisket itself was great! This one barely made it pass average, but with the low price tag, I could hardly complain.
* Squid In Thousand Island Sauce — Looks like tteok bukki if anything, but was surprisingly delicious! They prepared this well with the sauce not completely overpowering the dish, and you still had good amounts of squid to eat. Garnished with two pieces of bok choy
* Salt & Pepper Pork Chops — Okay… this is one of my favorite Cantonese dishes that is not hard to execute. Chi Café unfortunately disappointed me with these. Flavors were not there, pork chops were chewy as hell. I was upset by these! Definitely pass.
So overall, better than average, but still really depends on the actual dish. However, the low prices here pulls it forward and I appreciate that Chi Café does not try to make you pay for more than you should. Til the next take out opportunity!

The big pluses for this place are:
1. Open until real late into the night to satisfy any late night cravings.
2. Large selection (maybe too large?).
3. Cool vibe, they’re always doing a pretty good job for their décor.
If we’re out at night, Chi Café is definitely one of our go-​to places to grab a bite and kick it with friends.